Context: The scientific committee of International Whaling Commission (IWC) has issued its first ever Extinction Alert for Vaquita Porpoise.
About Vaquita Porpoise
- Vaquita is a small porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California around Mexico in the shallow waters bordering the Colorado estuary.
- Vaquita is a toothed whale like dolphins and sperm whales and different from baleen whales such as blue whale.
- Currently, only about 10 Vaquita Porpoise are believed to be surviving in the world.
- Vaquita Porpoise are the smallest species of cetacean order which also includes marine mammals like whales, dolphins and porpoises.
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered.
About Gulf of California
- Gulf of California is a large body of water that separates Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland.
- It is semi-closed waterbody and its water is protected from cold current of the Pacific.
- Gulf of Mexico is listed as one of the 66 Large Marine Ecosystems of the World with high endemism.
- Unique fish species found in Gulf of California are Totoaba (Critically Endangered) and Vaquita Porpoise (Critically Endangered).
Reasons for decline in the population of Vaquita Porpoise
- Main cause for the decline of population of Vaquita Porpoise is their incidental mortality in gillnets as bycatch.
- They are mainly entangled in shrimp gillnets and nets set for totoaba.
- Totoaba is a fish similar in size to Vaquita. Value of Totoaba has skyrocketed due to demand in black market for totoaba swim bladers in Hong Kong and China.
- Vaquita Porpoise has low reproductive rate and limited geographical distribution which makes it high vulnerable to human disturbances.
- Other reasons include increased urbanisation around Gulf of California and increased pollution.